Managing contact groups from subset of user contacts

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums for managing a subset of user contacts on a telecommunications device are provided. In one embodiment, a software application executed by a processor of a telecommunications device determines at least two contact groups from a subset of contacts accessible by a telecommunications device. The software application executed by the processor of the telecommunications device also generates a contact display including a representation of at least a portion of the first or second contact groups and a divider display object. The divider display object partitions the first contact group from the second contact group and is positioned adjacent to at least one contact from the first or second contact groups presented in the contact display.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/413,390, filed on Mar. 27, 2009, entitled MANAGING CONTACT GROUPSFROM SUBSET OF USER CONTACTS, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Generally described, telecommunications devices and communicationnetworks facilitate the collection and exchange of information.Utilizing a communication network and relevant communication protocols,a telecommunications device can engage in audio and/or datacommunications with other telecommunications devices, such as voicecalls, video calls, messaging (e.g., short message service (“SMS”) ormultimedia messaging service (“MMS”), content streaming, instantmessaging, resource browsing (e.g., Web browsing), and the like.

To facilitate communications, telecommunications devices can beassociated with software and hardware components that allow thetelecommunications device to maintain contact information, such astelephone numbers, email addresses, messaging addresses, etc., utilizedto establish and engage in communications via available communicationchannels. Typically, such contact information is maintained as contactinformation in which all known contact information for an identifiedentity, such as user, can be presented to a telecommunications deviceuser. For example, a telecommunications device may present a userinterface in which the contact information associated with a selectedindividual is presented in a list-based format. In another example, atelecommunications device with voice calling capabilities may maintain a“last call list” that keeps track of telephone numbers of the mostrecent incoming calls to or outgoing calls from the telecommunicationsdevice.

Although contact management user interfaces and software can facilitatethe input and management of contact information for a larger set ofcontacts, typical contact management approaches can become deficient asthe set of entities associated with a user grows. In one example,typical call list approaches are limited in the number of contactsidentified in the user interfaces (e.g., the last 4 numbers called).Accordingly, such approaches can become deficient as the number ofincoming or outgoing communications (e.g., voice calls) increasesbecause potentially desired contacts are removed from the display basedon order of the most recent incoming or outgoing communications.

In another example, typical contact management approaches relate to thepresentation of the entire set of contacts that are associated with auser, such as in alphabetical order. As the number of contactsmaintained in the telecommunications device, or on behalf of thetelecommunications device, grows, users may have increased difficulty inidentifying the contact information of specific entities. Additionally,for each contact, the typical contact management approach identifies allknown contact information (e.g., phone numbers, IM aliases, emailaddresses, etc.) without regard to a desired, or preferred,communication method. Additionally, typical contact managementapproaches are inefficient in the accessibility of select contactinformation and the establishment of options or actions that can beinitiated by the telecommunications device user via a number of userinterfaces.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of thepresent disclosure will become more readily appreciated as the samebecome better understood by reference to the following detaileddescription, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrative of one embodiment of atelecommunications environment including a number of telecommunicationsdevices and a contact management service;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrative of components of atelecommunications device for use in generation, management, and displayof user contact information;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrative of a contact management routineimplemented by a telecommunications device and/or within thetelecommunications environment of FIG. 1 for managing a subset of usercontacts and generating a contact display on a telecommunications devicebased on a current context of the telecommunications device user;

FIGS. 4A-4B are illustrative user interfaces generated on atelecommunications device for presenting user contact information forediting;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are illustrative user interfaces generated on atelecommunications device for presenting a group of contacts from thesubset of user contacts based on a current context of thetelecommunications device user;

FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating a logical association of contacts intoa plurality of contact groups;

FIG. 6B is another embodiment of an illustrative user interfacegenerated on a telecommunications device for presenting a group ofcontacts from the subset of user contacts based on a current context ofthe telecommunications device user;

FIG. 7A is an illustrative user interface generated on atelecommunications device for presenting contacts from the subset ofuser contacts with one or more divider display objects; and

FIG. 7B is an illustrative user interface generated on atelecommunications device for creating and/or modifying contact groupsusing at least one divider display object.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally described, the present disclosure is directed to managing asubset of user contacts on a telecommunications device. Specifically, inone embodiment, aspects of the disclosure will be described with regardto determining at least two contact groups from a subset of contactsaccessible by a telecommunications device and generating a contactdisplay including at least one contact group from the subset based on acurrent context of a user of the telecommunications device. The currentcontext may, for example, be one or more of a location, time, date, andthe like. In one embodiment, the user of the telecommunications devicecan initially select the members of each of the contact groups from thesubset of contacts. In this case, the user of the telecommunicationsdevice may also select and associate a context with each of theuser-selected groups. Alternatively, a context associated with each ofthe user-selected groups may be determined automatically based oncommunication events between the user and the members of each group. Inanother embodiment, rather than being user-selected, the members of theat least two contact groups may be determined automatically based on acontext associated with the user of the telecommunications device and aplurality of user communication events associated with the context.

In another embodiment, aspects of the disclosure will be described withregard to determining at least two contact groups from a subset ofcontacts accessible by a telecommunications device and generating acontact display including a representation of at least a portion of thefirst and second contact groups and a divider display object.Illustratively, the at least two contact groups can be determined inresponse to an add divider input initiated by a user of thetelecommunications device. The divider display object generated in thecontact display partitions the first contact group from the secondcontact group. In other embodiments, the divider display object can berepositioned to modify members of the contact groups. In still furtherembodiments, a plurality of divider display objects can be generated forvisually partitioning other additional contact groups from the subset ofcontacts.

Although aspects of the present disclosure will be described with regardto an illustrative telecommunications environment and componentinteractions, telecommunications protocols, flow diagrams, and userinterfaces, one skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that thedisclosed embodiments are illustrative in nature and should not beconstrued as limiting. Specifically, although the termtelecommunications device is used in this document, the term representsany type of device having a component for communicating with one or moreother devices via one or more communication paths. Such communicationpaths can include wireless communication paths (via infra-red, RF,optical, terrestrial, or satellite communication media) and wiredcommunication paths.

With reference now to FIG. 1, a block diagram illustrative of atelecommunications environment 100 for managing a subset of usercontacts, and particularly for managing at least two contact groups fromthe subset of user contacts, will be described. A contact may correspondto an individual person, an identifier associated with a person such asa telephone number, a group of people, an identifier associated with agroup of people, and the like. The telecommunications environment 100can include a contact management service 102. In an illustrativeembodiment, the contact management service 102 may be utilized toprovide, maintain, or transmit contact group information to one or moretelecommunications devices, as will be described below.

For each telecommunications device user, the contact group informationmay correspond to information associated with the generation of contactgroups from a subset of user contacts accessible by a telecommunicationsdevice. The contact group information may be generated, at least inpart, from information corresponding to interaction with individualusers of telecommunications devices and maintained in a data store 110.Additionally, the contact management service 102 may obtain additionalinformation from external sources, such as network-based data sources120. The additional information may become part of the contact groupinformation. Even further, the additional information may be used by thecontact management service 102 to generate or process the contact groupinformation. Such network-based data sources may include web sites,location based services, social network services, telecommunicationsservices, message publication services, etc. While the data store 110 isdepicted in FIG. 1 as being local to the contact management service 102,those skilled in the art will appreciate that the data store 110 may beremote to the contact management service 102 and/or may be a networkbased service itself.

While the contact management service 102 is depicted in FIG. 1 asimplemented by a single computing device in the telecommunicationsenvironment 100, this is illustrative only. The contact managementservice 102 may be embodied in a plurality of computing devices, eachexecuting an instance of the contact management service. A server orother computing device implementing the contact management service 102may include memory, processing unit(s), and computer readable mediumdrive(s), all of which may communicate with one another by way of acommunication bus. The network interface may provide connectivity overthe network 118 and/or other networks or computer systems. Theprocessing unit(s) may communicate to and from memory containing programinstructions that the processing unit(s) executes in order to operatethe contact management service 102. The memory generally includes RAM,ROM, and/or other persistent and auxiliary memory.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the contact management service 102 can includean external data source interface component 104 for obtaining externalinformation from network data sources 120, such as location data,contact data, and other supplemental data that can be incorporated,directly or indirectly, into the contact group information. Examples ofexternal information can include user contact information, usercommunication events, contextual data associated with atelecommunications device user and with user communication events, suchas time, date, location, and the like; contextual data associated withcontacts of the user and with user contact communication events, such astime, date, location, and the like; social networking information;current status information associated with the user and/or usercontacts; and the like. The contact management service 102 can alsoinclude a device interface component 106 for obtaining information fromone or more telecommunication devices (e.g., location data fortelecommunications device(s), IP addresses assigned to computingdevice(s), etc.). The contact management service 102 can further includea contact management component 108 for processing telecommunicationsdevice information and external information in determining at least twocontact groups from a subset of contacts accessible by atelecommunications device and in further processing such contact groupinformation, as will be further described further below in reference toFIG. 3.

One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the contactmanagement service 102 may correspond to a number of computer devices,such as server computing devices. Additionally, the external data sourceinterface component 104, device interface component 106, and contactmanagement component 108 may be implemented in a single computing deviceor across multiple computing devices. Likewise, although the contactmanagement data store 110 is illustrated as local to the contactmanagement service 102, the data store 110 can correspond to adistributed data store and/or network-based data store. One skilled inthe relevant art will also appreciate that the contact managementservice 102 may include any one of a number of additional hardware andsoftware components that would be utilized in the illustrativecomputerized network environment to carry out the illustrative functionsof the service 102 and/or any of the individually identified components.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the telecommunications environment100 can include a number of telecommunications devices 112 or othercomputing devices 122, each associated with a user. Thetelecommunication devices 112 or other computing devices 122 cangenerate the displays that facilitate interaction of a user with otherusers. The telecommunications devices 112 can correspond to a widevariety of devices or components that are capable of initiating,receiving, or facilitating communications over a communication networkincluding, but not limited to, personal computing devices, hand heldcomputing devices, integrated components for inclusion in computingdevices, home electronics, appliances, vehicles, machinery, landlinetelephones, VoIP telephones, cordless telephones, cellular telephones,smart phones, modems, personal digital assistants, laptop computers,gaming devices, media players, and the like. In an illustrativeembodiment, the telecommunications devices 112 include a wide variety ofsoftware and hardware components for establishing communications overone or more communication networks, including cellulartelecommunications network 114, a wired telecommunications network (notshown) and/or an IP-based telecommunications network (not shown).Illustrative components of a telecommunications device 112 will bedescribed in greater detail with regard to FIG. 2.

In an illustrative embodiment, the telecommunications environment 100can include a number of additional components, systems, and/orsubsystems for facilitating communications with the telecommunicationsdevices 112 and/or the contact management service 102. The additionalcomponents can include one or more switches or switching centers 116 (inGSM embodiments, Mobile Switching Centers or MSCs) for establishingcommunications with the telecommunications devices 112 via thetelecommunication network 114, such as a cellular radio access network,an IP-based telecommunications network based on the family of IEEE802.11 technical standards (“WiFi”) or IEEE 802.16 standards (“WiMax”),a converged wireless telecommunications network such as UnlicensedMobile Access (UMA) or General Access Network (GAN), and other wired andwireless networks. The operation of telecommunication networks, such astelecommunication network 114 are well known and will not be describedin greater detail. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the switching center 116includes interfaces for establishing various communications via acommunication network 118, such as the Internet, intranets, privatenetworks and point to point networks, generally referred to as the“network.” Although the telecommunications network 114 is illustrated asa single communication network, one skilled in the relevant art willappreciate that the communication network can be made up of any numberof public or private communication networks and/or network connections.

With reference now to FIG. 2, illustrative components of atelecommunications device 112 for use in the creation and display ofcontact group displays will be described. The telecommunications device112 may include one or more processing units 202, such as one or moreCPUs. The telecommunications device 112 may also include system memory204, which may correspond to any combination of volatile and/ornon-volatile storage mechanisms. The system memory 204 may storeinformation which provides an operating system component 206, variousprogram modules 208, program data 210, a contact management module 222,and/or other components. As will be explained in greater detail below,the contact management module 222 stored in system memory of thetelecommunications device 112 may perform all or some of the functionsdescribed above in connection with the contact management component 108of the contact management service 102 (FIG. 1). The above-enumeratedlist of components is representative and is not exhaustive of the typesof functions performed, or components implemented, by thetelecommunications device 112. One skilled in the relevant art willappreciate that additional or alternative components may also beincluded in the telecommunication device 112 to carry out other intendedfunctions such as a mobile telephone functions.

The telecommunications device 112 performs functions by using theprocessing unit(s) 202 to execute instructions provided by the systemmemory 204. The telecommunications device 112 may also include one ormore input devices 212 (keyboard, mouse device, specialized selectionkeys, etc.) and one or more output devices 214 (displays, printers,audio output mechanisms, etc.). Illustrative user interfaces for atelecommunications device 112 will be described with regard to FIGS.4A-4B, FIGS. 5A-5B, FIG. 6B, and FIGS. 7A-7B below.

With continued reference to FIG. 2, the telecommunications device 112may also include one or more types of removable storage 216 and one ormore types of non-removable storage 218. Still further, thetelecommunications device 112 can include communication components 220for facilitating communication via wired and wireless telecommunicationsnetworks, such as telecommunications network 114 and network 118 (FIG.1). In an illustrative embodiment, the communication components 220 canfacilitate the bi-lateral transfer of data between thetelecommunications device 112 and the contact management system 102(FIG. 1). Examples of various communication protocols include, but arenot limited to, Bluetooth, the family of IEEE 802.11 technical standards(“WiFi”), the IEEE 802.16 standards (“WiMax), short message service(“SMS”), voice over IP (“VoIP”) as well as various generation cellularair interface protocols (including, but not limited to, air interfaceprotocols based on CDMA, TDMA, GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, WTDMA,LTE, OFDMA, and similar technologies).

As previously described, in accordance with an aspect of the presentdisclosure, a telecommunications device 112 can generate one or moredisplays on a user interface via an output device 214. In anillustrative embodiment, the displays include various display objectsthat represent user contacts, identifiers of contact groups, contactdividers, or combinations thereof. In an illustrative embodiment,display objects may be selectable by a user via any one of a variety ofinput methods and devices. Additionally, the determination of thedisplay objects that are included in the displays may be predetermined,automatically determined (in real time or semi-real time), or manuallyconfigured/managed according to user-specified criteria. Further, thedisplay and formatting of the display objects and the illustrativedisplays may be specified according to specific telecommunication devicecapabilities, service provider specifications, or user configurations.

With reference now to FIG. 3, one embodiment of a contact managementroutine 300 implemented by a contact management service 102 of thetelecommunications device 112 to generate a contact group display willbe described. Routine 300 will be described as being generally performedby the contact management service 102. However, one skilled in therelevant art will appreciate that actions/steps outlined for routine 300may be implemented by one or many computing devices/components that areassociated with the telecommunications environment 100. Accordingly, anyfunctionality described in reference to routine 300 could be generallyperformed by any component in the telecommunications environment 100,including contact management module 222 of the telecommunications device112, other modules, or combinations thereof. Thus, the followingillustrative embodiments should not be construed as limiting.

At block 302, the contact management service 102 identifies a subset ofuser contacts from a set of user contacts. As similarly set forth above,a user contact may correspond to an individual person, an identifierassociated with a person such as a telephone number, a group of people,an identifier associated with a group of people, and the like. In someembodiments, the set of user contacts from which the subset isidentified is not limited and, in others, it may be limited such thatonly those contacts that the device has access to without requiringfurther input by user are included in the set. In other embodiments, theset from which the subset is identified may be further limited tocontacts known to the user, contacts identified in one or moreelectronic address books, contacts having user-specifiedcharacteristics, and the like.

Additionally, in one illustrative embodiment, the subset of contacts canbe selected by the user and subsequently maintained, for example, indata store 110 for future identification and access by the contactmanagement service 102.

In another embodiment, a portion of the subset of contacts can beselected by the user of the telecommunications device 112, while aremaining portion of the subset of contacts are selected automaticallybased on one or more other factors. In one example, the factor used toselect the remaining portion of the subset of contacts can be afrequency of communication between the user and one or more usercontacts accessible by the telecommunications device 112. In thisexample, the contact management service 102 monitors communicationsbetween the user and each of the user's contacts accessible by thetelecommunications device 112 and maintains data associated with themonitored communications. Based on the monitored communications andcorresponding maintained data, the contact management service 102 maydetermine a frequency of communication between the user and each of theuser's contacts. This information can then be used to determine theremaining portion of the subset of contacts. In one illustrativeembodiment, the remaining portion of the subset of contacts can beselected based on the user contacts that have been in communication withthe user the most number of times. In other embodiments, the contactmanagement service 102 may track the types of communications between theuser and the user's contacts, such as SMS messages, MMS messages,emails, voice calls, and the like, and then select the remaining portionof the subset of contacts based on the frequency of one type ofcommunication or an aggregation of some or all types of communications.In addition, if aggregated, one type of communication can be weightedover other types. Even further, in other embodiments, the contactmanagement service 102 may track only those communications initiated bythe user to select the remaining portion of the subset of contacts basedon the user's frequency of initiating communication with each of theuser's contacts. Yet further, the contact management service 102 maytrack the frequency of communication between the user and each of theuser's contacts during any period of time.

Additionally or alternatively, in a further embodiment, the identifiedsubset of user contacts can be associated with a special rate planoffered by a telecommunications carrier providing communication servicesto the telecommunications device 112. Specifically, the user may beprovided a special rate associated with any communications made betweenthe user and any of the contacts identified in the subset. In additionto a special rate, the rate plan may have a variety of other parametersthat may affect selection of the contacts to be included in the subset.For example, in one embodiment, the subset of contacts may be limited innumber to correspond to a number of contacts with whom communicationswill be provided at a special rate. As another example, the subset ofcontacts may be editable only after a specified period of time haselapsed from initial selection (whether by the user or partially byautomated selection based on other factors such as frequency ofcommunication information).

With continued reference to FIG. 3, at block 304, a test is performed bythe contact management service 102 to determine whether contextinformation should be used to determine at least two groups of contactsfrom the identified subset of user contacts. Generally described,context information can correspond to information that is published, orotherwise made available, about events associated with thetelecommunications device user, any one or more of the user's contacts,the telecommunications environment 100, or any combination thereof. Byway of example, context information as used in determining contactgroups includes, but is not limited to, location, time of day,individual travel designations (e.g., stationary, moving, velocity,heading, etc.), manual designations (e.g., location, status, mood,etc.), cost information (e.g., rate plans, location), and the like.Additionally, context information may be expressly published by anidentified entity, or on behalf of such an entity, or determined byreference to various information sources, such as calendaringinformation, location information, etc.

If, at block 304, the contact management service 102 determines thatcontext information should take into consideration in the creation ofcontact groups, the contact management service 102 determines at leasttwo contact groups from the identified subset of user contacts based oncontext information at block 306. In one embodiment, the contactmanagement service 102 uses a context of the user of thetelecommunications device and a plurality of user communication eventsassociated with the context to determine contact groups. For example,the contact management service 102 may determine that any user contactsfrom the identified subset and with whom the user communicates using theuser's telecommunications device at a particular geographic location,such as the user's place of employment, should be associated to form afirst contact group, such as a work contact group. In another example,the contact management service 102 may determine that any user contactsfrom the identified subset and with whom the user communicates duringparticular times and dates, such as from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to6 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, should be associated to form a secondcontact group, such as a commuting contact group. In addition oralternatively, in another embodiment, the contact management service 102uses a context of the user's contacts from the identified subset todetermine a contact group. For example, the contact management service102 may determine that two or more of the user's contacts are located ina single geographic region from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and thatthese user contacts should thus be associated to form a third contactgroup, such as a basketball contact group. In yet another example, thecontext information can include user preference information indicatingpreferred contacts for the user such as based on overall frequency ofcommunication. The contact management service 102 may determine thatthese contacts form a V.I.P. contact group.

In one illustrative embodiment, the contact management service 102 maydetermine at least two contact groups based on context information suchthat each user contact from the subset may only belong to a singlecontact group. Alternatively, a user contact may be allowed to belong tomore than one contact group. For example, while a spouse may be a memberof a family contact group based on context information, the user mayregularly communicate with the spouse at work and thus the spouse mayalso be a member of a work contact group based on other contextinformation.

In another illustrative embodiment, the contact management service 102may also determine an identifier for each determined contact group. Inone embodiment, the contact group identifier may be determined based oncontext information associated with the corresponding group. Forexample, the context information may include information published orotherwise made available about members of the contact group, such as asubject line of calendar information for each of the members indicatingthat from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays the contacts are at a basketballgame. Accordingly, this contact group may be associated with abasketball identifier. In some embodiments, a user may be able to editidentifiers which were previously automatically determined by thecontact management service 102. Alternatively, a user may provide theidentifiers. In this embodiment, the contact management service 102 isconfigured to associate an identifier with each determined contactgroup, but requires user input to provide the specific correspondingidentifier. The contact management service 102 may accordingly requestsuch user input upon generation of the contact groups. In yet anotherembodiment, the contact management service 102 can associate a priorityto the determined contact group based on preferences identified in orassociated with the context information.

In a still further illustrative embodiment, the contact groups may bepredetermined based on context information and maintained in the datastore 110 (FIG. 1). For example, contact groups may be determined aspart of an off-line process that is scheduled by the content managementservice 102. In another example, the contact management service 102 maystore information associated with the formation of contact groups formedduring previous iterations of routine 300. Accordingly, thedetermination of contact groups based on context information by thecontact management service 102 relates to recalling and processing thepredetermined data. Alternatively, the contact management service 102,or other component or service, may dynamically determine the contactgroups based on the currently available context information at the timeroutine 300 is being implemented.

With continued reference to FIG. 3, after the contact management service102 determines at least two contact groups from the identified subsetbased on context information, processing continues at block 312 as willbe explained further below. Returning to block 304, if the contactmanagement service 102 alternatively determines that context informationis not to be used to determine contact groups from the identifiedsubset, processing continues at block 308. Specifically, in thisembodiment, the contact management service 102 determines at least twocontact groups without the use of context information at block 308. Forexample, the contact groups may be user selected. A variety ofmethodologies may be utilized to present users of a telecommunicationsdevice 112 with contact groups for selection. Illustrative userinterfaces for facilitating user selection of contact groups areprovided in FIGS. 4A and 4B. In an illustrative embodiment, theselection of a contact group by a user of the telecommunications device112 may be achieved utilizing a variety of input methods and hardware orsoftware components in the telecommunications device 112. Examplesinclude, but are not limited to, touch screen interfaces, specializedkeys, stylus or other input devices, software based menus, voicecommands, and the like. In a further illustrative embodiment, a numberof contact groups may be made available for user selection. Suchavailable contact groups may be predetermined or otherwise staticallydetermined and maintained in the data store 110 (FIG. 1). In addition oralternatively, the user may create new personalized contact groupsassociated with a subset of contacts.

In yet another embodiment, the contact management service 102 candetermine at least two contact groups from the subset of user contactsbased on other user-created groups of contacts. Such user-created groupsmay include contacts other than those included in the subset of usercontacts currently being processed. For example, a user may havepreviously created groups of work contacts, school contacts, and familycontacts. Additionally, the subset of user contacts currently beingprocessed may correspond to a group of favorite contacts. In thisexample, there may be additional contacts in each of the work, school,and family contact groups that are not included in the user's favoritescontact group. Nonetheless, the contact management service 102 may usethese other user-created work, school, and family contacts to determinecontact groups from the favorite contacts subset. For example, a portionof the contacts in the favorite contacts subset may also belong to theuser-created work contact group. Accordingly, the contact managementservice 102 may determine a first contact group from the favoritecontacts subset to be a “favorite work” contact group based on theintersection of members between the favorite contacts subset and theuser-created work contact group.

Next, at block 310, the contact management service 102 optionallypredetermines context information for association with each of the atleast two contact groups select by a user of the telecommunicationsdevice 112. As similarly, set forth above, the context information cancorrespond to information that is published, or otherwise madeavailable, about events associated with the telecommunications deviceuser, any one or more of the user's contacts, the telecommunicationsenvironment 100, or any combination thereof. By way of example, contextinformation as used in determining contact groups includes, but is notlimited to, location, time of day, individual travel designations (e.g.,stationary, moving, velocity, heading, etc.), manual designations (e.g.,location, status, mood, etc.), cost information (e.g., rate plans,location), and the like. In an illustrative embodiment, the contextinformation associated with the contact group may be a selected from thesame context information that is available in the formation of contactgroups. Alternatively, the contact management service 102 may limit, orotherwise specify, context information that can be associated with adetermined contact group.

In one embodiment, the contact management service 102 uses contextinformation associated with the telecommunications device user and/orthe members of each user-selected contact group to determine a contextassociated with the respective contact group. For example, the contactmanagement service 102 may determine that the telecommunications deviceuser always communications with user contacts in a “work” contact groupwhile the user is at a particular geographic location, such as theuser's place of employment. The contact management service 102 may thusassociate this geographic location with the “work” contact group. Inanother example, the contact management service 102 may determine thatthe telecommunications device user always communicates with usercontacts in a “commuting” contact group during particular times anddates, such as from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondaysthrough Fridays. The contact management service 102 may thus associatethis time and date information with the “commuting” contact group. Asanother example, the contact management service 102 may determine thatuser contacts in a “basketball” contact group are all located in asingle geographic region from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. The contactmanagement service 102 may thus associate this location, day of theweek, and time information with the “basketball” contact group.

In another embodiment, the contact management service 102 may identify acontext for association with each contact group based on manualdetermination of the context associated with the formed content group. Avariety of methodologies may be utilized to present users of atelecommunications device 112 with context information for selection andassociation with a particular contact group. Additionally, the selectionand association of a context with a particular contact group by a userof the telecommunications device 112 may be achieved utilizing a varietyof input methods and hardware or software components in thetelecommunications device 112. In one illustrative embodiment, thetelecommunications device user may generate a user interface forallowing a user to input, or otherwise select, a context, to beassociated with a particular contact group. Additionally, thecommunication management service 102 may provide a telecommunicationsdevice user with the ability to edit dynamically determined contextinformation, to modify the context information, or otherwise add/removecontext information.

In yet another embodiment, rather than the contact management service102 automatically determining a context associated with each of thecontact groups based on context information and rather than providingfor user selection of the context, a context may be predefined as beingassociated with a particular contact group. For example, a work contactgroup may be predefined as being associated with a geographic locationcorresponding to the telecommunications device user's place ofemployment. As also further explained below, one skilled in the relevantart will appreciate that block 310 may be omitted altogether orpartially implemented in accordance with user preferences for example.

With continued reference to FIG. 3, after determination of at least twocontact groups associated with a subset of user contacts via eitherblock 306 or block 308 and optional block 310, the contact managementservice 102 generates a contact display based on a current context ofthe telecommunications device user at block 312. More particularly, thecontact management service 102 selects a first contact group from the atleast two contact groups for display in the contact display based on acurrent context of the telecommunications device user. Accordingly, thecontact management service 102 first determines a current contextassociated with the user of the telecommunications device. Examples ofcontext information have been previously provided. After identifying theuser's current context, the contact management service 102 determineswhether the user's current context corresponds to a context associatedwith any of the at least two contact groups. Continuing with theforegoing example, the contact management service 102 may correlate the“Work” contact group with the user's current context since the “Work”contact group is associated with context information about contacts theuser communicates with while at work. Given that the user is now locatedat work, the contact management service 102 determines that the “Work”contact group should be displayed to the user.

While the contact management service 102 may compare the user's currentcontext with context information previously associated with each of thecontact groups, the contact management service 102 may also dynamicallydetermine context information associated with each of the contact groupsfor comparison with the user's current context. For example, the contactmanagement service 102 may determine that the user is currently locatedat a park. The contact management service 102 may then dynamicallydetermine that user contacts in a “family” contact group are alsolocated in the park or are on their way to the park. This contextinformation may not be previously associated with the “family” contactgroup as the picnic may be a recently planned event. The contactmanagement service 102 may thus dynamically determine that the “family”contact group corresponds to the user's current context and generate adisplay in which the “family” contact group is presented to user basedon the user's current context.

In some embodiments, more than one contact group may correspond to theuser's current context. In this case, the contact management service 102may prioritize the identified contact groups based on one or moreadditional criteria. Such criteria may be predetermined by the service102 or provided by the user of the telecommunications device. In oneexample, location based context information may be prioritized over dateand time based context information. In another example, user providedcontext information, such as an “at work” designation, may beprioritized over any real time context information.

After identifying a contact group based on a user's current context, thecontact management service 102 generates a display in which theidentified contact group is presented. Illustrative user interfaces fordisplaying a contact group from the subset of user contacts based on auser's current context are provided in FIGS. 5A-5B and FIG. 6B and willbe described further below. In an illustrative embodiment, the contactmanagement service 102 may generate a contact display in which only theidentified contact group is presented. Alternatively, the contactdisplay may include other contacts or contact groups, but the identifiedcontact group based on the user's current context may be otherwiseemphasized. For example, the identified contact group may be presentedon the display with an associated contact group identifier, while othercontacts or contact groups are not. In another example, the identifiedcontact group may be more prominently displayed in comparison to othercontacts or contact groups. In yet another example, each of the contactsin the identified contact group may be emphasized, such as throughhighlighting, increased dimensions of corresponding graphicalidentifiers, and the like, as compared to other displayed contacts orcontact groups. After the contact management service 102 generates thecontact display based on the user's current context, the routine 300ends at block 314.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art and others that thedetermination at block 304 is optional in some embodiments. For example,the routine 300 may be implemented without determining members of eachof the contact groups based on context information at block 306.Alternatively, the routine 300 may be implemented only where the contactgroups are created based on context information and thus, in this case,blocks 308 and 310 may be omitted. It will also be appreciated by oneskilled in the art and others that the functionality at block 310 mayalso be optional. For example, in some embodiments, the contactmanagement service 102 alternatively dynamically determines contextinformation associated with each contact groups.

With reference now to FIGS. 4A-4B, illustrative user interfacesgenerated on a telecommunications device for presenting informationassociated with a user contact for editing will be described. The userinterfaces illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4B correspond to displays generatedon a display screen 400 corresponding to an output device 214 (FIG. 2).One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the screen displaysare illustrative in nature and should not be construed as limiting.

With reference to FIG. 4A, one embodiment of a user interface generatedon the telecommunications device 112 for facilitating user selection ofcontact groups will be described. In this embodiment, the user interfacecorresponds to a display screen 400 that includes a display 402 fordisplaying a contact information record associated with a first contactof the telecommunications device user. The contact information recordincludes a plurality of display objects 406, 408, 410 for identifyingcharacteristics associated with the first contact, such as an image, aname, and a contact number, respectively. The contact information recordfurther includes a display object 412 which identifies that the firstcontact as a member of a subset of contacts. In this example, the subsetof contacts corresponds to a “favorites” subset of contacts. Displayobject 412 can also be selectable to add or remove the first contact asa member of the “favorites” subset. For contacts that are members of the“favorites” subset of contacts, the contact information record furtherincludes a display object 414 which identifies contact groups to whichthe contact also belong. In this example, the first contact isassociated with “work” and “basketball” contact groups. The contactinformation record also includes a display object 416 which isselectable for adding and/or otherwise editing the contact groups towhich the first contact belongs.

With reference now to FIG. 4B, another embodiment of a user interfacegenerated on the telecommunications device 112 for facilitating userselection of contact groups will be described. In this embodiment, theuser interface corresponds to a display screen 400 that includes adisplay 432 provided in response to selection of the display object 416in the display 402 of FIG. 4A for adding and/or otherwise editing thecontact groups to which the first contact belongs. Display 432 in FIG.4B provides various contact groups to which the first contact maybelong. As shown in the illustrative embodiment in FIG. 4B, the contactgroups can include a family contact group 436, a work contact group 438,a basketball contact group 440, and a commuting contact group 442. Inaccordance with the prior example, the first contact is currentlyidentified as belonging to the “work” and “basketball” contact groups.Each of the contact groups identified in the display 432 can be selectedto include the first contact as a member or deselected to remove thefirst contact as a member of the respective contact group. The display432 also includes a display object 434 for selecting the first contactto be a member of all contact groups associated with the “favorites”subset of contacts. Additionally, the display 432 includes a displayobject 444 for facilitating the creation of a new contact group by theuser of the telecommunications device 112.

With reference now to FIGS. 5A-5B, illustrative user interfacesgenerated on a telecommunication device for presenting a first contactgroup based on a current context of a user of the telecommunicationsdevice will be described. One skilled in the relevant art willappreciate that the screen displays are illustrative in nature andshould not be construed as limiting. With reference to FIG. 5A, oneembodiment of a user interface generated on the telecommunicationsdevice 112 for presenting a first contact group based on a currentcontext of a user and for facilitating the selection of contactsassociated with the first contact group will be described. In thisembodiment, a display screen 500 includes a first portion 502 fordisplaying movement of a set of graphical identifiers about an axisexternal to the telecommunications device 112. The graphical identifierscan be considered display objects 504 in which each display objectcorresponds to a specific contact. In this embodiment, the displayobjects 504 correspond to contacts that are members of a first contactgroup associated with a subset of user contacts. For example, the subsetof user contacts may have been identified by the user as “favorites” ormay be associated with a special service provider rate plan. In thisexample, the first contact group from this subset determined based on auser's current context is a “work” contact group. As the rotation of thedisplay objects 504 is emulated, one display object is manipulated to bethe focal point of the interface, as illustrated on display object 506.Accordingly, the user can select the contact associated with the focalpoint display object 506. The first portion 502 of the display screen500 further includes a display object 508 corresponding to contact groupidentifier (e.g., a “Work” identifier). Additionally, a control 510 isfurther presented in the display screen 500 and can be manipulated toidentify and select other contact groups from the subset of usercontacts for display. Depending on the capabilities of thetelecommunication device 112, other display objects may also beselectable.

With reference to FIG. 5B, another embodiment of a user interfacegenerated on the telecommunications device 112 for presenting a firstcontact group based on a current context of a user and for facilitatingthe selection of contacts associated with the first contact group willbe described. In this embodiment, a display screen 500 includes a firstportion 530 for displaying movement of a set of graphical identifiersabout an axis. The graphical identifiers can be considered displayobjects 532 in which each display object corresponds to a specificcontact. In this embodiment, the display objects 532 correspond tocontacts that are members of a first contact group associated with asubset of user contacts. For example, the subset of user contacts mayhave been identified by the user as “favorites” or may be associatedwith a special service provider rate plan. In this example, the firstcontact group from this subset determined based on a user's currentcontext is a “work” contact group. As the rotation of the displayobjects 532 is emulated, a user can select any of the display objects532. Alternatively, the size and formatting of one or more of thedisplay objects 632 may also be varied to facilitate focus on aparticular display object 632. The first portion 530 of the displayscreen 500 further includes a display object 508 corresponding tocontact group identifier (e.g., a “Work” identifier). Additionally, acontrol 510 is further presented in the display screen 500 and can bemanipulated to identify and select other contact groups from the subsetof user contacts for display. Depending on the capabilities of thetelecommunication device 112, other display objects may also beselectable.

With reference now to FIGS. 6A-6B, yet another embodiment of anillustrative user interface generated on a telecommunication device forpresenting a first contact group based on a current context of a user ofthe telecommunications device will be described. In particular, in thisembodiment, as will be described further below, the illustrative userinterface as shown in FIG. 6B presents a first contact group based on acurrent context of a user. Additionally, the user interface alsodisplays one or more contacts not included in the first contact group.One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the screen displayas shown in FIG. 6B is illustrative in nature and should not beconstrued as limiting.

With reference to FIG. 6A, a diagram 600 illustrating a logicalassociation of contacts into a plurality of contact groups will first bedescribed. The diagram 600 illustrates a subset of user contacts 604,614, 624. These contacts 604, 614, 624 are further distinguished by aplurality of contact groups 602, 612, 622. In particular, contacts 604are associated with a first contact group 602. In this example, thefirst contact group is a “family” contact group and is thus associatedwith “Family” contact group identifier 628. Contacts 612 are associatedwith a second contact group 612. In this example, the second contactgroup is a “commuting” contact group and is thus associated with“Commuting” contact group identifier 630. Finally, contacts 622 areassociated with a third contact group 622. In this example, the thirdcontact group is a “work” contact group and is thus associated with“Work” contact group identifier 632. The diagram 600 also includes anumber of contact group dividers 658 for logically identifying andfurther displaying how the contacts 604, 630, 632 are divided intocontact groups. Accordingly, a first of the dividers 658 separates the“Family” contacts 604 from the “Commuting” contacts 614, while a secondof the dividers 658 separates the “Commuting” contacts 614 from the“Work” contacts 624. As similarly mentioned above, an individual contactmay belong to more than one contact group. Alternatively, each contactmay be limited to inclusion in a single contact group.

With reference to FIG. 6B, another embodiment of a user interfacegenerated on the telecommunications device 112 for presenting a firstcontact group based on a current context of a user will be described. Inthis embodiment, a display screen 652 includes a first portion 654 fordisplaying movement of a set of graphical identifiers about an axisexternal to the telecommunications device 112. The graphical identifierscan be considered display objects 614, 624 in which each display objectcorresponds to a specific contact. In this embodiment, the displayscreen 652 presents a contact group identified based on a currentcontext of a user in a second portion 662 of the display. Additionally,the identified contact group is displayed with an associated identifier622. Continuing with the prior example discussed above with respect toFIG. 6A, the identified contact group may be a “Work” contact group.Accordingly, contacts 624 from the “Work” contact group 622 aredisplayed on the display screen 652 in FIG. 6B with a “Work” identifier632.

In one embodiment, while the “Work” contact group is identified anddisplayed based on the user's current context, other contacts fromdifferent contact groups may be simultaneously presented on the displayscreen 652. Accordingly, the “Work” contact group may be presented to auser of the telecommunications device as the contact group of relevance(i.e., the contact group identified based on the user's current context)in accordance with a number of methodologies, such as by providing acontact group identifier for only the identified contact group,prominently displaying only contacts from the identified contact group,providing any other emphasis for only those contacts in the identifiedcontact group, and the like. In the current example, while one of thecontacts 614 from the “Commuting” contact group (FIG. 6A) is presentedin another portion 664 of the display screen 652, the identified contactgroup (i.e., the “Work” contact group) is associated with a “Work”contact group identifier 632 to provide the user with an indication thatthe “Work” contact group is the contact group selected based on theuser's current context. Additionally, controls 660 are further presentedin the display screen 652 and can be manipulated to emulate rotation ofthe contact groups in order to identify and select other contacts fromdifferent contact groups. The display screen 652 further includesdivider display objects 658 for delineation between contacts indifferent contact groups. The divider display objects 658 also emulaterotation together with the contacts about the axis external to thedisplay.

With reference now to FIGS. 7A-7B, illustrative user interfacesgenerated on a telecommunication device for presenting contacts includedin a subset of contacts with one or more divider display objects will bedescribed. In particular, in one embodiment, as will be describedfurther below, contacts groups formed from the subset of user contactsin any manner can be displayed in a user interface with divider displayobjects to delineate one contact group from another. Additionally, inanother embodiment, the contact groups may be created using dividerdisplay objects. One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate thatthe screen displays presented in FIGS. 7A-7B are illustrative in natureand should not be construed as limiting.

With reference now to FIG. 7A, one embodiment of a user interfacegenerated on the telecommunications device 112 for presenting contactgroups formed from a subset of user contacts will be described. Thisembodiment is virtually identical to the user interface described inreference to FIG. 6B with a few exceptions. First, the embodimentsassociated with the user interfaces depicted in FIGS. 7A-7B do notrequire that the contact groups be selected based on contextinformation. Instead, the contact groups may be formed in any manner.Moreover, as will be described further in reference to FIG. 7B, thecontact groups may be formed by a user by adding divider display objectsbetween contacts on a display. Additionally, the contact groups may bemodified by a user by moving divider display objects between differentcontacts on the display. Second, the displays presented in theillustrative user interfaces depicted in FIGS. 7A-7B are not generatedin response to or based on a user's current context. Instead, the userinterfaces may be presented to a user at any time. In one embodiment,the user interfaces may be presented automatically on a home page, astart screen, or an idle screen; upon selection by a user of thetelecommunications device; and the like.

With further reference to FIG. 7A, in one embodiment, a display screen700 includes a first portion 702 for displaying movement of a set ofgraphical identifiers about an axis external to the telecommunicationsdevice 112. The graphical identifiers can be considered display objects722 and 724 in which each display object corresponds to a specificcontact. In this embodiment, the display screen 700 further includes atleast one divider display object 704 for delineation between contacts indifferent contact groups. Specifically, in the example illustrated inFIG. 7A, the divider display object 704 partitions display objects 722from display objects 724. Accordingly, display objects 722 are includedin a first contact group, while display objects 724 are included asecond contact group. In one embodiment, the at least one dividerdisplay object 704 can also be moveable together with the contacts toemulate rotation about the axis external to the display. Accordingly,additional contacts from the subset of contacts and/or additionaldivider display objects (and thus additional contact groups) may comeinto view on the display screen 700 in response to a number of variousdifferent types of user inputs. For example, in one illustrativeembodiment, controls 712 are presented in the display screen 700 and canbe manipulated to emulate rotation of the contact groups and dividerdisplay objects in order to identify and select other contacts fromdifferent contact groups.

With reference now to FIG. 7B, one embodiment of a user interfacegenerated on the telecommunications device 112 for creating and/ormodifying contact groups using divider display objects will bedescribed. The user interface depicted in FIG. 7B is virtually identicalto the user interface described in reference to FIG. 7A with a fewexceptions. First, the divider display object 704 is selected asindicated by a selection display object 726. The divider display object704 may be selected in a number of ways to cause the divider displayobject to be presented together with the selection display object on thedisplay screen 700. As set forth above, display objects, including thedivider display object 704, may be selectable by a user via any one of avariety of input methods and devices. Examples include, but are notlimited to, touch screen interfaces, specialized keys, stylus or otherinput devices, software based menus, voice commands, and the like. Inone embodiment, the divider display object 704 may be selectable by auser in such a way that a divider display object is added to the displayscreen 700 where there was previously no divider display object, such asin response to an add divider input. In another embodiment, a user mayselect a divider display object already presented on the display screen700, such as by touching a displayed divider display object 704, tomodify the contact groups delineated by the divider display objects. Theuser interface depicted in FIG. 7B is illustrative of a display screen700 which may be presented to a user of the telecommunication device inresponse to any of the foregoing described selection inputs associatedwith the divider display object.

As further illustrated in FIG. 7B, in one embodiment, the display screen700 may also include controls 714 which can be manipulated by a user tocause the divider display object 704 to be positioned between differentcontacts on the display. In this way, contact groups may be modifiedbased on the repositioning of the divider display object betweendifferent contacts from the subset of user contacts. In one embodiment,manipulation of the controls may cause the divider display object tomove on the display screen 700 relative to the displayed contacts in thesubset of contacts. In addition or alternatively, manipulation of thecontrols may cause the display objects associated with the contacts tomove on the display relative to the divider display object 704. Ineither case or combination, as controls 714 are manipulated, othercontacts in the subset of user contacts and/or other divider displayobjects may be presented on the display, while some of the previouslypresented contacts and/or divider display objects may appear to rotateoff the display screen 700. Once the divider display object 704 isrepositioned, the new contact groups are formed.

In another embodiment, the display objects 722, 724 which are associatedwith the user contacts may be individually selectable and moveable toreposition the selected display object in a different contact group. Inthis embodiment, movement of a display object from the portion 706 onthe display screen 700 (on the right side of the divider display object704), for example, to the portion 708 on the display screen 700 (on theleft side of the divider display object) causes the moved display objectto become a member of a different contact group.

In yet another embodiment, contact groups, at least a part of which aredisplayed in the display screen 700, may be modified based on deleting adivider display object 704. In one example, selection of the dividerdisplay object 704 illustrated in FIG. 7B may facilitate selection ofadditional actions, such as a delete divider action, provided by a userof the telecommunications device.

In a still further embodiment, upon addition of a first divider displayobject between contacts in the subset, the contact management service102 may automatically generate one or more additional dividers tofurther define the group, or groups, formed by the insertion of thefirst divider display object. Specifically, the contact managementservice 102 can automatically generate a start divider display object,an end divider display object, or both in addition to the requesteddivider display object. This embodiment may be particularly applicableto embodiments in which the subset of contacts emulate rotation about anaxis external to the telecommunications device display. By way ofexample, assume the contact management service 102 displays a subset ofcontacts that emulate rotation about an axis. In one aspect, the usermay want to be able to visually distinguish between the first and lastcontact in the subset (or a start and an end of the subset).Accordingly, the contact management service 102 can automatically add adisplay object (e.g., a start or end divider) adjacent to contacts in afirst and/or last logical position, respectively, in the subset.Accordingly, in the embodiment in which the subset of contacts emulaterotation about the external axis, the start and/or end divider displayobject provides the user with an indication that the user has cycledthrough to the first and/or last contact in the subset.

In one embodiment, start and/or end divider display objects may beautomatically generated and displayed in response to a user's request toadd a first divider display object. In another embodiment, the contactmanagement service 102 may always initially generate a start and/or enddivider display object for display with the subset of contacts withoutrequiring user input.

In yet another embodiment, the contact management service 102 mayprovide additional functionality so that a user can cause the display toscroll immediately to the next divider positioned between contacts. Inparticular, the contact management service 102 may be able toimmediately cause a next divider display object (previously positionedbetween contacts) and at least one contact adjacent to the next dividerdisplay object to be presented on the telecommunications device displayin response to a user input. In this way, rather than displaying eachcontact from the subset in sequence via emulated rotation of thecontacts, the contact management service 102 can bypass display ofselect contacts in the sequence (and which are not currently of interestto the user) by immediately advancing the display to a next dividerdisplay object in response to a user input. Accordingly, the contactmanagement service 102 can advance the contacts displayed in incrementsdefined by the positioning of the divider display objects.

In any of the foregoing embodiments, rather than the display objects722, 724 corresponding exclusively to contacts from a subset ofcontacts, the display objects 722, 724 can correspond to individualcontacts, groups of contacts each represented by a single graphicalidentifier, applications, other executable components, or anycombination thereof, determined from a larger set. For example, insteadof creating contact groups within a user's favorite set of contacts(which is a subset of all of the user's contacts), a user may create afavorite set of applications or a favorite set of executable componentsfrom which groups may be created, modified, and displayed using thedivider display object 704 as described above.

Additionally, rather than being exclusively applicable to user contacts,any of the other foregoing embodiments, such as those described inreference to FIGS. 3-6B, may be equally applicable to individualcontacts, groups of contacts each represented by a single graphicalidentifier, applications, other executable components, or anycombination thereof, determined from a larger set.

All of the processes described herein may be embodied in, and fullyautomated via, software code modules executed by one or more generalpurpose computers or processors. The code modules may be stored in anytype of computer-readable medium or other computer storage device. Someor all the methods may alternatively be embodied in specialized computerhardware. In addition, the components referred to herein may beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware or a combination thereof.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow diagramsdescribed herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should beunderstood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions ofcode which include one or more executable instructions for implementingspecific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternateimplementations are included within the scope of the embodimentsdescribed herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executedout of order from that shown or discussed, including substantiallyconcurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionalityinvolved, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

It should be emphasized that many variations and modifications may bemade to the above-described embodiments, the elements of which are to beunderstood as being among other acceptable examples. All suchmodifications and variations are intended to be included herein withinthe scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: causing generation of afirst contact display on the mobile telecommunications device, whereinthe first contact display includes a first representation of at least aportion of a subset of contacts; determining a location for a firstdivider display object for partitioning the contacts from the subset ofcontacts to form at least two contact groups from the subset ofcontacts, wherein determining a location for the divider display objectis based on an add divider request initiated by the user of the mobiletelecommunications device, wherein the add divider request identifies alocation for the divider display object between two contacts representedon the display; and responsive to determining the location for thedivider display object, determining a first set of members of each ofthe at least two contact groups from the subset of contacts based atleast in part on the location of the divider display object relative tothe subset of contacts; and causing the generation of a second contactdisplay on the mobile telecommunications device, wherein the secondcontact display includes the divider display object and a secondrepresentation of at least a portion of the subset of contacts, whereinthe divider display object is positioned adjacent to at least onecontact in the second representation, and wherein the divider displayobject is selectable to modify positioning of the divider display objectrelative to the subset of contacts in order to modify members of the atleast two contact groups from the subset of contacts; wherein the methodis implemented in a computer system.
 2. The method as recited in claim1, wherein contacts displayed in the second contact display arerepositioned to prevent intersection with the divider display object. 3.The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the subset of contacts isselected at least in part by the user of the mobile telecommunicationsdevice.
 4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the add dividerinput includes a touch screen input, wherein the touch screen inputidentifies the location between two contacts represented on the display.5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first representationand the second representation include the same contacts from the subsetof contacts.
 6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least onecontact in the first representation is different from the contacts inthe second representation.
 7. The method as recited in claim 1 furthercomprising: obtaining at least one modification input associated withthe first divider display object for modifying the positioning of thefirst divider display object; and causing generation of a third contactdisplay on the mobile telecommunications device, wherein the thirdcontact display includes the divider display object and a thirdrepresentation of at least a portion of the subset of contacts, whereinthe divider display object is repositioned based on the at least onemodification input, and wherein the divider display object isrepositioned adjacent to at least one different contact displayed in thethird contact display as compared to the second contact display.
 8. Themethod as recited in claim 7, wherein contacts displayed in the thirdcontact display are repositioned to prevent intersection with thedivider display object.
 9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein thesecond representation and the third representation include the samecontacts from the subset of contacts.
 10. The method as recited in claim7, wherein at least one contact in the third representation is differentfrom the contacts in the second representation.
 11. The method asrecited in claim 7, wherein the at least one modification input includesuser-selected movement of the divider display object on the display ofthe mobile telecommunications device.
 12. A system comprising: a datastore for maintaining subsets of contacts, wherein each subset ofcontacts is associated with a user of a mobile telecommunicationsdevice, wherein each subset of contacts includes a portion of contactsaccessible by the respective mobile telecommunications device, andwherein the portion of contacts includes a plurality of contacts; and atleast one computing device in communication with the data store, the atleast one computing device configured to: cause generation of a firstcontact display on the mobile telecommunications device, wherein thefirst contact display includes a first representation of at least aportion of a subset of contacts; determine a location for a firstdivider display object for partitioning the contacts from the subset ofcontacts to form at least two contact groups from the subset ofcontacts, wherein determining a location for the divider display objectis based on an add divider request initiated by the user of the mobiletelecommunications device, wherein the add divider request identifies alocation for the divider display object between two contacts representedon the display; and responsive to determining the location for thedivider display object, determine a first set of members of each of theat least two contact groups from the subset of contacts based at leastin part on the location of the divider display object relative to thesubset of contacts; and cause the generation of a second contact displayon the mobile telecommunications device, wherein the second contactdisplay includes the divider display object and a second representationof at least a portion of the subset of contacts, wherein the dividerdisplay object is positioned adjacent to at least one contact in thesecond representation, and wherein the divider display object isselectable to modify positioning of the divider display object relativeto the subset of contacts in order to modify members of the at least twocontact groups from the subset of contacts.
 13. The system as recited inclaim 12, wherein contacts displayed in the second contact display arerepositioned to prevent intersection with the divider display object.14. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the subset of contacts isselected at least in part by the user of the mobile telecommunicationsdevice.
 15. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the add dividerinput includes a touch screen input, wherein the touch screen inputidentifies the location between two contacts represented on the display.16. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the first representationand the second representation include the same contacts from the subsetof contacts.
 17. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein at least onecontact in the first representation is different from the contacts inthe second representation.
 18. The system as recited in claim 12,wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:obtain at least one modification input associated with the first dividerdisplay object for modifying the positioning of the first dividerdisplay object; and cause generation of a third contact display on themobile telecommunications device, wherein the third contact displayincludes the divider display object and a third representation of atleast a portion of the subset of contacts, wherein the divider displayobject is repositioned based on the at least one modification input, andwherein the divider display object is repositioned adjacent to at leastone different contact displayed in the third contact display as comparedto the second contact display.
 19. The system as recited in claim 18,wherein contacts displayed in the third contact display are repositionedto prevent intersection with the divider display object.
 20. The systemas recited in claim 18, wherein the second representation and the thirdrepresentation include the same contacts from the subset of contacts.21. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein at least one contact inthe third representation is different from the contacts in the secondrepresentation.
 22. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the atleast one modification input includes user-selected movement of thedivider display object on the display of the mobile telecommunicationsdevice.